Terriers Know What It Takes To Beat Higher Seeded Teams

March 10, 1988|by JACK LAPOS, The Morning Call

After Phillipsburg Catholic wrapped up the Delaware River Conference boys basketball title, Coach Joe Orchulli said he was not surprised that the Terriers came out on top despite the fact they were the underdogs in the championship game.

The Terriers nailed down the trophy by outdueling top seed Hackettstown 51-50 Feb. 26 on a last-second field goal by Pat Duffy on the neutral Warren Hills High School court.

Now it's two weeks later, the sweet smell of success is still fresh in their nostrils and they have a chance tonight at Paterson to win the New Jersey Parochial Section B North title against St. Anthony's of Jersey City in what appears to be the Terriers' toughest test of the entire winter.

Looking back the other day the Terriers' Orchulli was willing and quite happy, in fact, to talk about the regular season whichsaw his team win 20 of 24 games before advancing into New Jersey post-season play.

What made Orchulli pleased was that even though his Terriers had lost twice to Hackettstown during the regular schedule, 61-45 and 58-49, his team was not at all pessimistic going into the third meeting between the teams, this time for the title. Orchulli knew his players had to go into the showdown with a positive way of thinking and the Terriers did indeed do that.

"I was optimistic because we had improved after those two losses. We learned from our mistakes. Our philosophy is to have as much fun as possible and play together as a team with an honest effort at all times," Orchulli said.

"I did not go into the title game thinking we positively would win because I knew it was a tough game and our players had to perform well to win," he said. "But I had a good feeling about our chances."

He said his team played very intelligently in the conference championship contest. "That is not to say that Hackettstown did not do the same. Hackettstown has a very good team and we had to play at their high level to beat them," the coach said.

"We changed a few things," the coach said. "But then throughout the season we tried many different defenses such as 3-2, 1-3-1, a press in a variety of ways and sometimes man-to-man. The idea of course was to go with what is producing the best results."

Orchulli said he told his players all winter long they should not be afraid to try things because they certainly could profit by any mistakes made. "You have got to give yourself a chance to win," Orchulli said.

The Terriers showed excellent balance on offense - as their statistics did indeed indicate.

Over those first 24 games Duffy was the leading scorer with a 16.5 average followed rather closely by Terry O'Hare 14.5, Jim Sands 13, Tom Balas 11.5 and Chris Lorenzo 9.5. Among the otherkey players was Chris Bajak. Of this group, the only player returning next season is Lorenzo, who is a sophomore.

O'Hare did most of the ball handling. The school's quarterback during the football season in the fall, O'Hare directed the Terriers in basketball with a sense of confidence. Sands was the leading rebounder, averaging close to 10 a game.

The conference title this winter was Orchulli's third in seven seasons at Phillipsburg Catholic. The previous ones were achieved in 1985 and 1986. The 42-year-old Orchulli is a graduate of Phillipsburg Catholic and St. Leo's College in Florida. In his senior year of high school Orchulli and his Terrier teammates advanced to the New Jersey championship contest only to lose in that final game. At. St. Leo's he also was a standout, being named an All-America player in 1967.

Durring the past two weeks Orchulli's Terriers have done well in the New Jersey Catholic playoffs. Last Thursday they whipped Delbarton 58-51 and came right back Saturday to defeat St. Mary's of Elizabeth in a 50-49 thriller. So tonight they will take their 22-4 record into that Section B North title game with perennial power St. Anthony's of Jersey City in the JFK High School gym at Paterson.